New APA member benefit: Tuition discount to Force11 Scholarly Communications Summer Institute.

Dear DAVID,

We invite all members of the American Philosophical Association to attend the FORCE11 Scholarly Communications Summer Institute (FSCI2018) hosted by the UC San Diego Library, July 30–August 3, 2018, at the MET building on the campus of the University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA USA.

The APA has partnered with FSCI to offer a $150 tuition discount to all APA members. If your membership is current, visit the APA Member Discounts and Savings page to access the discount code. Please note: You must be signed in to the website to access this page. If your membership is not current, join or renew today.

Since the advent of the web, scientific and scholarly communication has been in highly disruptive phase. There are new forms of publication, new standards and expectations, new ways of measuring and demonstrating success, new challenges and pitfalls. These are topics that cross disciplines and are applicable to researchers at all career stages. For academics and researchers, understanding and succeeding in this environment is of crucial importance. The purpose of this summer institute is to address the changes and give participants the skills and tools they need to thrive in this new environment.

Instructors include some the top researchers and thought leaders from scholarly and scientific communication and publishing. Course topics range from an introductory overview to advanced offerings in collaboration, reproducibility, the public humanities, research mentorship, and others.

All levels of participants, from absolute beginners to advanced at scholarly communication, will find courses of interest. If you are a scholar/researcher, student, or anyone else who participates in scholarly communication, you will benefit from attending FSCI.

Course List:

• Inside Scholarly Communications Today
• Reproducible Research Reporting and Dynamic Documents with Open Authoring Tools: Toward the Paper of the Future
• Collaboration, Communities, and Collectivities: Understanding Collaboration in the Scholarly Commons
• Community, Collaboration, and Impact: Open Scholarly Communication for Humanities and Social Sciences
• Building an Open, Fair, and Sustainable Information-Rich Research Institution
• Data in the Scholarly Communications Life Cycle
• The Basics and Beyond: Developing a Critical, Community-Based Approach to Open Education
• Research Reproducibility in Theory and Practice
• The Art of Transforming a Research Paper into a Lay Summary
• Open South: The Open Science Experience in Latin America and the Caribbean
• Pre- and Post-Publication Peer Review: Perspectives and Platforms
• Detection of Questionable Publishing Practices: Procedures, Key Elements, and Practical Examples
• Open Data Visualization – Tools and Techniques to Better Report Data
• Public Humanities as Scholarly Communication
• Integrating Wikidata with Your Research and Curation Workflows
• How Much Does Open Access Cost? A Hands-on Approach to Tracking and Analyzing Article Processing Charges
• Publishing Reproducible Code and Data: A Hands-on, Bring-Your-Own-Code Course
• Opening the Research Enterprise: Partnering to Support Openness in Grant-Funded Faculty Research
• Implementing Software Citation
• Mentoring the Next Generation of Open Scholars: Approaches, Tools, and Tactics
• Structural Biology: A Prototypical Case for Publishing Big Data

Register online today and be sure to use the discount code listed on the APA website (login required) to claim your $150 discount.

We hope you will be able to attend!

For more information, visit our website or contact Stephanie Hagstrom, 1-858-534-1219.

Marching to end gun violence in NY-19. CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE PAT RYAN.

Hi David,

This past weekend, Rebecca and I marched with the incredible young leaders who founded Hudson Valley Stands Up to hold our elected officials accountable for putting gun manufacturers above the lives of students. I spoke with a student who told me after seeing the students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas step up and fight back, they were inspired and believed their political leaders would listen and take action.

And then, our nation faced another horrific school shooting in Santa Fe, TX. But we're still not seeing any meaningful action from our elected officials. In fact, Trump and Faso have doubled down in their support for the NRA. I joined this race to serve my country again, to tackle tough issues like gun violence head on, and to fight for real progress to protect the lives of children.

On Saturday, June 16th I'm marching 30 miles with students, teachers, and activists in NY-19 from the FDR House in Hyde Park to Rep. John Faso's office to deliver a letter demanding our congressman take action on a federal level and be an advocate for policy to end gun violence now. This year, twice as many students have died in school shootings than US military members killed in combat operations. It's time to get weapons of war off of our streets.

It’s clear that our current leaders aren’t taking gun violence prevention seriously. Our president pandered to the NRA at their annual convention a month ago, and just last week, John Faso made a joke during a town hall on the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Bill, instead of facing this issue with the gravity it deserves. Enough is enough.

Our letter to Faso demands that he take federal action to protect the lives of students by calling for an assault weapons ban, along with a series of other common-sense gun safety measures.

More soon,

Pat

LOGIC. IT'S NOT JUST FOR VULCANS, AND VIEWERS OF "THE BIG BANG THEORY." #3.

BEWARE THE STRAW MAN.

In the following examples, we are faced with the same example of flawed reasoning:

A)  Statement-  "I think Same- Sex Couples should have the same Rights and Opportunities as Heterosexual Couples."

       

Answer-  "So I guess we have to allow Brothers and Sisters to get married, or let children get married no matter how old they are.  Even worse, such a thing as Bestiality must be legalized."

B)  Statement-  "Churches enjoy Tax Exempt Status, that is why they cannot endorse any Political Party, Candidate or Platform."

      

Answer-  "Really, Priests and Ministers can't be allowed to vote.  If they do, it would be illegal, and the State will shut them down."

The above are actual examples I took from talk radio, but this Logical Fallacy can be found all across the Media. They are both examples of STRAW MAN ARGUMENTS.

A Straw Man argument takes a proposition or assertion, and refutes it by misstating or misapplying what was said.  Often this is done by claiming to argue against something that was not part of the original content, and attempts to create a position that the opposing side never proposed, endorsed or even addressed.

In the first example, the initial statement only proposed that Same- Sex couples be given status equal to that of Heterosexual couples.  Since Heterosexual couples have restrictions that may or may not allow them to Legally Marry, ( i.e. Age, Bloodlines, Freedom of Choice without Coercion, Bigamy etc.), these would also apply to Same- Sex couples.  There is no reason to think that legalizing Homosexual Unions would exempt them from the guidelines already established for Heterosexual Couples.

The second example applies to Public Political Behavior that occurs at Church Sanctioned Activities, and behavior that is private in nature. Church officials can express their opinions freely, and legally comment on any part of the Election Process, as long as it is not done at an official event that acknowledges their Authority or Capacity within the Church.  Also, I am unaware of any Law that prevents a member of the Clergy from voting, apart from guidelines established for every citizen.

My education plan works. GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE ALEC ROSS.

David, I first moved to Baltimore 24 years ago to be a teacher at Booker T. Washington Middle School on Baltimore’s west side, and I saw incredible talent in my students, but not enough opportunity. Over two decades later, not much has changed, and that’s why I’ve made education the centerpiece of my campaign. This week, The Baltimore Sun declared my education proposal for the state of Maryland the “most comprehensive and far-reaching” among the candidates for governor. What will we do? We will invest in early education and expand pre-K, provide computer coding classes for ALL public school students, improve students' online access to STEM, foreign language, and AP classes, bring gifted and talented programs to underserved areas, and make Maryland the home to the country’s best apprenticeship programs. I am dedicated to ensuring that the benefits of a good education are not limited by zip code. My proposal will prepare all Maryland Public School students and teachers to succeed in the 21st Century workforce. I can’t wait to see what we do together, - Alec